- Full program launch: Following its four-month pilot in 2018, the bank kicked off the full financial education program last week at its annual Financial Education Summit in Houston.- 240 attendees including 93 representatives from participating community partners: Fifty nonprofit community partners were represented at this year's Summit, which was the largest in the bank's program history.- Aggressive goals for 2019: BBVA Compass has committed to providing financial education to 10,000 low- to moderate-income adults this year, led by its bank subject-matter expert employee volunteers.

HOUSTON, March 14, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- BBVA Compass launched its full financial education program for 2019 last week, on the heels of a successful four-month pilot program which wrapped in December, aiming to reach approximately 7,000 more people during its first full year in existence.

The BBVA Compass Center for Financial Education Community Partner Program, which was the centerpiece of the bank's Financial Education Summit in Houston this past week, is designed to provide financial education workshops through partnerships with local nonprofit organizations in the bank's footprint. Piloted with 28 nonprofit organizations in 2018, the program now includes 50 organizations in 29 markets. The bank expects to more than triple its 2018 participation of 2,900 participants, targeting a total of 10,000 low- to moderate-income adults this year.

The program underscores the bank's purpose, bringing the age of opportunity to everyone by improving the lives and financial capabilities of the people in the communities served by the bank, according to BBVA Compass Director of Communications and Responsible Business Reymundo Ocañas. In addition, the program provides skills-based volunteer opportunities for bank employees, which augment the bank's CRA efforts and contributed to its recent outstanding rating.

Workshops are customized to focus on home ownership, personal finance and small business and are led by local bank volunteers with expertise in each of the subject matter areas.

"During our pilot last year, we saw a strong positive response which clearly indicated the need for us to broaden our reach," Ocañas said. "Our goal this year is to expand the program to provide the financial education foundation that creates opportunities for more people to improve their financial capabilities and achieve financial security. We can do that by partnering with even more nonprofit organizations and expanding our geographic reach through our entire footprint."

The BBVA Compass Foundation, the bank's charitable-giving arm, selected the nonprofits to receive grants and host financial education workshops led by BBVA Compass subject matter experts. These workshops are designed to help participants improve their understanding of the financial system in order to identify and seize opportunities to increase their financial stability. The grant recipients have a demonstrated ability to provide financial capability programming to low- and moderate-income families, to unbanked or underbanked populations, or to small businesses in underserved areas.

BBVA Compass provided the workshop curricula, which it developed using its own subject matter experts in partnership with leading education technology firm EverFi.

"As bankers, our expertise lies in the field of financial matters. We believe we have an obligation to share that expertise with the people in our communities," said Ocañas. "We want to give them the tools and the knowledge to help them make sound, responsible financial choices."

For more information on the bank's Center for Financial Education Workshops, please contact fined.us@bbva.com

About BBVA Group
BBVA
BBVA, -0.49%
is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. The Group has a strong leadership position in the Spanish market, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, it has leading franchises in South America and the Sunbelt Region of the United States; and it is also the leading shareholder in Garanti, Turkey's biggest bank for market capitalization. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity, a long-term vision and applies the best practices. More information about BBVA Group can be found at bbva.com.

About BBVA Compass
BBVA Compass is a Sunbelt-based financial institution that operates 645 branches, including 332 in Texas, 89 in Alabama, 63 in Arizona, 61 in California, 45 in Florida, 37 in Colorado and 18 in New Mexico. BBVA Compass ranks among the top 25 largest U.S. commercial banks based on deposit market share and ranks among the largest banks in Alabama (2nd), Texas (4th) and Arizona (6th). BBVA Compass has been recognized as one of the leading small business lenders by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and ranked 6th nationally in the total number of SBA loans originated in fiscal year 2017. Additional information about BBVA Compass can be found under the Investor Relations tab at bbvacompass.com. For more BBVA Compass news, follow @BBVACompassNews on Twitter, visit newsroom.bbvacompass.com, or visit bbva.com.

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